Getting Back On the Horse – or Whitehorses In This Case!
Getting Back On the Horse – or Whitehorses In This Case! In 2017 I sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on
(And Why Laying on the Forest Floor Might Be the Healing You’ve Been Looking For)
Sometimes, when life feels too loud, too fast, or too much… the quiet answer is waiting under your feet.
Literally.
Dr. Zach Bush, MD, said it best:
“When you lay on the forest floor, you’re not just resting—you’re receiving.”
You’re receiving medicine, information, and restoration. Not from a book. Not from a theory. But from the soil, the wind, the microbial life around you, and the quiet rhythm of nature doing what it’s always done: bringing life back into balance.
When we enter nature, we’re not entering a “place.” We’re returning to our original blueprint.
Everything in nature knows how to self-regulate. Trees don’t rush. Rivers don’t overthink. The soil isn’t anxious about what comes next. Nature lives in deep, embodied rhythm. And when we’re in it, our bodies remember that rhythm too.
“The forest literally turns off the danger signals in our brain,” says Dr. Bush. “It reactivates parasympathetic function—rest, repair, and connection.”
This is why even 15–30 minutes in nature can lower your heart rate, reduce cortisol, stabilise your gut, and calm your whole system. It’s not magic—it’s biology meeting biology.
Zach Bush (I’m a big fan, if you couldn’t tell!) speaks often about the invisible healing network of the Earth. The soil is alive. Full of billions of microorganisms. These microbes communicate with our bodies, especially when we touch the ground, breathe deeply in the forest, or lie still on the earth.
When you lie on the forest floor, barefoot or skin to ground, there’s a quiet exchange happening. You’re not just relaxing—you’re being recalibrated. The biodiversity in the soil interacts with your skin, your breath, and your internal microbiome. It’s like two ancient systems remembering each other.
“You’re not separate from nature,” Dr. Bush reminds us. “You are nature. You are an extension of this incredible intelligence.”
And that intelligence doesn’t judge. It doesn’t diagnose. It doesn’t try to fix you. It simply receives you as you are—and offers you balance in return.
Forest bathing (a practice called Shinrin-yoku in Japan) isn’t about doing anything. You’re not hiking, exercising, or checking off another self-care box. You’re being.
No phone. No performance. Just you, your breath, and the trees.
And the effects are real:
The forest doesn’t offer insight in words. It offers it through the nervous system. Through subtle shifts. Through a slowing down so deep you feel yourself land inside your own body again.
“Healing doesn’t always require effort,” says Bush. “It sometimes requires surrender.”
Nature shows us how.
You don’t need a forest to feel this. A park. A patch of grass. A riverbank. A tree in your backyard. Wherever you are, you can begin.
Here’s a simple practice:
You don’t need to figure anything out. Just let the earth do what it’s been doing for millions of years: recalibrating life toward balance.
In a world full of noise, nature is the quiet space that still knows your name.
It doesn’t care how long it’s been. It doesn’t care how messy you feel. It doesn’t care what you believe.
It just welcomes you back—again and again.
So the next time you feel overwhelmed, stuck, or disconnected, remember: you have a therapist waiting for you. One who asks for nothing, but gives everything.
“Lay on the forest floor,” Dr. Bush says. “Let your body remember the rhythm of life.”
And if you do, even just for a few minutes, you may find that what you’ve been searching for out there… was inside you all along. Nature just helped you hear it again.
Getting Back On the Horse – or Whitehorses In This Case! In 2017 I sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on
My father who is 90 in less than a month, flew to England to visit with me and his grandchildren
© All Rights Reserved Shannon O'Flaherty 2023
